Taboola is paying publishers back after its deal with Outbrain fell apart

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Today's news: Taboola pays publishers back, insiders question WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar's leadership, and how 'plant-based' brands are moving past meat.

Taboola Founder and CEO Adam Singolda.
Taboola

Content-recommendation company Taboola is repaying publishers $16 million in revenue guarantees that were postponed in the pandemic

Taboola said it would repay $16 million it withheld from publisher clients amid the coronavirus earlier this year, Lara O'Reilly reports.
The company's move to switch publishers to different deals contributed to the breakdown of its proposed $2 billion merger with rival content recommendation firm Outbrain.
Taboola CEO Adam Singolda said advertiser revenue rebounded in the second half of the year and that the company is returning the amount publishers would have received had their guarantee deals not been put on ice.

Read the full story here.

Jason Kilar.
WarnerMedia

New WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar is moving to shake up Hollywood. Insiders are questioning if he has what it takes to turn around the entertainment giant without destroying it.

Claire Atkinson reports that Jason Kilar's move to shake up WarnerMedia's movie release schedule has some insiders questioning if he has what it takes to turn around the entertainment giant without destroying it.
While Hollywood has raged at the decision, insiders say the way he carried it out shows he's a polarizing leader who's insulated himself from critics and represents the worst of tech industry stereotypes.
Boosters see him as a visionary risk-taker who's looking out for the consumer, though.

Read the full story here.

Beyond Meat Introduces Beyond Meatballs, made from plant-based proteins, at grocery stores.
Beyond Meat, Inc.

How the $5 billion 'plant-based' industry became a gold mine for consumer packaged goods brands who are slapping the label on products like energy drinks, almonds, and cleaners

Burgers and milks from companies like Beyond Meat have popularized "plant-based" as a marketing term for alternatives to animal-based foods, report Alex Bitter and Catherine LeClair.
But increasingly "plant-based" and related terms are being used to sell a wider variety of foods, from almonds to fruit juices to hot-dog substitutes made from carrots.
Executives and experts say the term could lose its meaning if the industry can't agree on a definition, sending it the way of "all natural" and other terms that have lost currency.